Monday, December 23, 2013

I really don´t know how much time I will have to write today, but
I'm going to write as much as possible!

I really cannot believe that it is almost Christmas.
Christmas is less than 2 days away. Christmas in Peru is soooooooooooo much
different than in the United States. First off, it's 20,000,000,000,000,000,000
degrees out here. Definitely going to be dreaming of a white Christmas, but I
really don't think I'm going to be seeing much snow. It's going to be
different, but it's going to be good. It will be my first Christmas on the
beach. Pretty cool, no? I'm super excited for Christmas morning. I think this year
the song "I Saw Three Ships" is going to take on a whole new meaning!
My first Christmas where I will really be able to see three ships come sailing
in. Right now there are soooooooooooooooooo many boats here. They are all here
so that all the fishers can be here with their families for Christmas! Super
cool! Another thing that they do to celebrate Christmas here in Peru is that
they eat fruitcake. Not even joking. In the states fruitcake is a joke. Here
"paneton" is the real deal. Christmas isn't Christmas here without
fruitcake! And the worst part about it is that it is nasty! Mainly just because
I hate raisins. But it's okay though. I really am loving my time here. I'm
going to have one of the best Christmas days ever!

This last week went pretty well. It was a little hard to teach
people because everyone is super busy getting ready for Christmas. But we were
able to have some really great lessons! One of the lessons we had was not so
great though. We were teaching this less active member about the plan of
salvation. We were teaching her about the fall of Adam and she told us that if
Adam hadn't partaken of the forbidden fruit he still would have been able to
have kids. We tried to explain it to her forever! It was honestly so
frustrating! We finally just had to end the lesson and challenge her to pray
about it and really ask if what the scriptures and the prophets teach is
correct or not!

Tuesday we had a baptism! We really didn't have to do much for
this baptism though! It was the baptism of a super cool kid who is 15 years
old. He has been attending church for the past 3 months and finally decided to
be baptized! It was soooooo cool watching his dad baptize him. I still think
the best part about every baptism is watching the person come up out of the
water and seeing the giant smile on their face. I am so grateful to be a
missionary. As missionaries we really do have a front row seat to miracles happening
in people's lives every day!

Wednesday was the championship soccer game of a tournament here in
Peru. La U. Really I hate the team just because their name literally translates
to "The U". Supposedly they won this tournament and that makes them
the best team in Peru. After the game hundreds of people mobbed together and
marched through the streets chanting and singing and swinging their shirts over
their head. It was pretty cool watching it from the safety of a member’s house.
I definitely don´t want to be out in the crowd! It's going to be so crazy here
in July during the World Cup. I can't even imagine what the missionaries in
Brazil are going to do!

Thursday our zone had our interviews with President Rowley!
President Rowley is the best! It was fun seeing the assistants there too! I had
become really good friends with Elder B in Piura so it was fun to see him! I
can't wait for the Christmas devotional we have on Christmas Eve when we get to
see a third of the mission! I'm sure that will be fun!

Thursday afternoon we had a lesson with Hermana G. She is a super
amazing person. She is a mother of 5 children and 2 of them are twins. The
twins are only 1 year old. We ended up finding her on the list of potential
investigators. We have been teaching her for the past few weeks and she really
likes the gospel. She said to us on Thursday that she really believes that this
church is true! That was one of the coolest things to hear as a missionary! I'm
super excited. The one problem is that she isn't married, but she is currently
in the process of getting everything together that she needs so she can be
married! Her family is the best!

Friday was the Christmas concert in Paita. It was a concert by a
youth orchestra from Piura. It was super fun. It was DEFINITELY a youth
orchestra though. But overall it was really fun. President Rowley and his wife
came. Our zone sang Silent Night at the end of the concert in Spanish and
English. That was super duper cool. After the concert they served hot chocolate
and fruitcake. I don´t know about you, but when it is a million degrees outside
I want cold chocolate milk, not hot chocolate! And fruitcake is never good. I
ate it with a smile though!

Saturday we went "Caroling" with our zone. There are
tons of little parks here and so we went from park to park singing Christmas
songs and we ended up getting tons of references from it! Even though this
Christmas is going to be hard being away from family, I am super excited for
it!

I am so grateful to be a missionary, especially at this time of
the year. I know the church is true. At this time of the year I am especially
grateful for my loving Savior. I know he lives. And I know that he died for
every one of us. I am so grateful for this time of year when we can reflect on
his birth and his marvelous life. I know this church is true. I am so grateful
for the opportunity to share this gospel with others!

Thanks for all of the love and support! I really hope that you all
have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Paita Perú!

Love, Elder Baker

P.S. Sounds like Kaysville is super pretty with all of the snow! I
hope that you have a great Christmas this week! I would love to have a day
skiing in snow. It would be pretty hard to ski here. I can´t wait to talk to
you on Wednesday! It's going to be the best! Love you! Merry Christmas!

Lauren, So your members shower you with presents? I have received
a total of 0 presents here. But it honestly doesn't make me sad. Because these
people don't even have the money to buy their kids presents. I really hope you
have a wonderful Christmas! Christmas in the mission is going to be the best!
Thanks for being such a great example to me! Love you tons! Merry Christmas!

One more week in Paita. I have almost been here in Paita for a
month now. Crazy right? This last week was a pretty decent week. Not overly
amazing, but not bad at all. And it's definitely starting to warm up. I cannot
wait for January and February. Summer here is going to be a killer! jaja
literally..

Tuesday morning we had our district meeting which went pretty
well. I really love district meetings. My district is really cool. There are 2
other gringos in my district so it is kind of fun. They are super cool. My
whole district is really cool. I really love being here in Paita. After
the district meeting we went and had a practice with our whole zone practicing
what we are going to be doing for the Christmas conference on the 24th in
Piura. I'm so excited for the Christmas Conference. It's going to be sweet! We
are singing this really cool version of Silent Night in English and Spanish.
It's super cool. I love music. Music brings the spirit so strongly into my
life. Thank you so much for the music you sent me. It honestly helps so much.
With everything. When I am sad. When I am homesick. When I am happy. When I am
frustrated. It always helps. Music is the best. Especially music this time of
year about our Savior.

Wednesday was a super duper duper hot day here in the mission. We
went out at 10:00 am and sweated like crazy all the way until lunch. It was
ridiculously hot. Super pretty day though. I am so grateful to be here on the
ocean. It's so pretty. I honestly feel so blessed to be here in this area!
After lunch we went to visit some people in the area called Nueva Esperanza in
our branch. It's in the upper part of Paita and is super far away, so we don't
go there very much, but we ended up going to visit some members there. I'm
grateful that most of my time is in the lower part of Paita. The upper part of
Paita is completely dirt. And TONS of wind. All of the 18 other missionaries in
our zone are in the upper part except us. We're so blessed. Wednesday night we
had a Family Home Evening with a less active family and the leaders of the
branch. It was super great. I really think it helped inspire Hermano L to
prepare to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. He realizes the importance and
knows how much of a blessing he can be to his family! It was a super great
night!

Thursday we went and had a service activity in the morning. We
went and painted Hermana C's house. Hermana C is our pensionista. She is the
coolest lady ever! And her house is super cool overlooking the ocean. The only
problem was that it was a ugly green color. But we ended up painting it
turquoise. It looks pretty cool now. It was kind of hard to paint though,
because part of it is super duper high. We ended up having to tape paint
brushes and paint rollers to the end of these long poles and paint on the top
of a ladder to get it done. We finally got it done though and it looks so much
better! It was a pretty fun morning. After that we went and had a ton of
appointments that afternoon. We were literally running from one appointment to
the next because we didn't have enough time. I was so tired that night. It was
a great day though!

Painting our Pensionista's House

Friday was day 150 of the mission. Can you believe that? 150
amazingly hard and challenging and so worth it days. The mission is the best.
We had weekly planning in the morning then went to teach a lesson to a 15 year
old that lives here in Paita. His whole family was baptized earlier this year,
but he didn´t want to get baptized with them, because he felt like he didn't
have a testimony of the gospel which is a valid reason to not want to be
baptized. He has been coming to church almost every Sunday for a while now with
his family and has now decided that he has gained a testimony and wants to be
baptized. He has had all the missionary lessons before so we went over to
review with him to make sure he remembers everything. He remembered everything!
He knows the lessons better than we do! jaja not really, but he knew almost
everything! He is ready to come with us to visit investigators! He is a super
great kid. He's going to be such a strength to this ward and to his family! I'm
super happy for him!

The highlight of Saturday was during personal study when I read
the talk called "Put Your Trust in the Lord" by Elder Ballard from
this past general conference about the importance of spreading the gospel. That
was a super great motivation for me. There is nothing better that I could be
doing right now than sharing the gospel. I know that what he said is true. If
we put our trust in the Lord, He will bless us with all the things we need to
be successful at sharing the gospel. The Lord is hastening the work. This
church truly needs everyone to reach out a hand and help share this gospel with
someone else! I am so grateful to be here on the mission!

Sunday morning we went to church and about 8:45 President Rowley
showed up with his wife. President had some interviews in Paita in the
afternoon so he decided to come visit our branch for the morning. President
loves Puerto Paita. We truly have one of the prettiest areas in the mission. An
ocean front chapel. Not many members of the church have that! All of Sunday
went great. I love being a missionary. It's hard and challenging, but the
blessings are worth more than anything!

Today for P day we didn't do much. We went and hiked to a cool
spot to take pictures this morning, but other than that we just kind of stayed
in our apartment and relaxed. Mainly just because my companion doesn't feel
really well today. It's been a great day though!

Thanks for all of the love and support! Love you guys! I hope you
all have a Merry Christmas!

Love, Elder Baker

P.S.

Sounds like it's pretty cold there. How about I give you about 30
degrees of warmth from Paita. Then it will be better for both of us!

I really think I've gained 15 pounds here. The food is great! And
I love fish! So I love Paita! Cause it's a fishing town!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Monday. Monday. Monday. Mondays are good days. But then again,
pretty much every day on the mission is a great day. There have been so many
great things this past week. One of them being that I haven't been sick at all
this past week. I've kind of gotten used to getting sick here. Sick equals diarrhea. Or however you spell
that horrible thing. It comes and it goes. I don't take any medicine. I just
drink lots of water and it passes. One of the joys of South America! :)It's never super bad, but
there is almost always one day a week where I don't feel completely perfect.
This week was a great week though!

Tuesday morning Elder C and I went over to the house of Hermana E,
who was baptized last Saturday, to paint the main room in her house. Painting
is pretty fun. I really actually like painting. Getting ready to paint, however,
is the worst. Honestly it took like 3 hours to get the walls ready to paint.
All the old paint was chipping off, so we had to sand pretty much the whole
room. As we sanded, the walls slowly changed from purple, to green, to blue, to
orange, back to purple, and to pink. It's pretty normal here though. People
paint their houses a different color every year. Gotta keep it interesting!
Painting ended up going really fast. And it didn't look too bad either!

Painting is pretty fun!

Tuesday our pensionista made us pancakes. Pancakes! She has been
cooking for missionaries for almost 20 years and she says that she knows
gringos love pancakes. She is the best. She always asks what kind of food we
want. Fish, chicken, beef, intestines, huevera, pizza, lasagna. You name it,
she´ll make it for you. She always says to us, "The missionaries need to
be happy. And if the missionaries have to eat food every day that they don't
like, they aren't going to be happy." haha. She's the best!

Wednesday was a great day. We went running on the beach. I always
love starting the morning with running. Mainly just because it makes me feel
like I'm doing something for myself. Honestly, I'm getting chubby. And I don't
like it. Definitely a great motivator to do your exercises though! One of the
best parts of Wednesday night was the Family Home Evening we had with Hermana
Esmeralda, and 5 people from the ward. We watched the Joseph Smith Restoration
video. It was a super great thing. After the video we had a testimony meeting.
It was so cool hearing everyone's testimonies about Joseph Smith and the
Restoration, especially the testimony of Hermana Esmeralda. She is honestly one
of the nicest ladies I have ever met. She's awesome. She is going to be a great
member of the church and a huge strength for the branch here in Puerto Paita.

Thursday we had a zone meeting. I love getting together with other
missionaries. Missions are the greatest. In the meeting we talked about the
importance of goals. Honestly if we didn't set goals as a missionary, we
wouldn't get much work done. We talked about how we can set more effective
goals. President Rowley wants us to start using a 3 step system where we set
long term goals, and then break it up in to weekly goals and then break up the
weekly goal into what you need to do every day to reach this goal. It will be
really good. We had some news at the end of the meeting. We are no longer
allowed to use backpacks in this mission. Pretty big bummer for me. I honestly
love my backpack. I'll be fine though. Going to obey. Obedience is better than
sacrifice. Also, we are not allowed to use skinny ties any more. Luckily that
only applies to 1 of my ties. The others are all okay. It made me think about
the pictures of the ties dad used on his mission. None of them would be
approved now!

Thursday afternoon went pretty well. We ended up finding 3 new
investigators. That's a lot for one day here in this area. We are super
excited. I am praying that some of them will be able to progress. We are in
desperate need of new investigators in this area right now.

Friday morning we had weekly planning and we set some goals for
how we can find more new investigators. We are praying a lot. Going to have to
act by faith, and I know that we will receive the help we need. I really love
weekly planning. It's a super great time to focus individually on the needs of
every single person that you are teaching. It's super great.

Not much happened on Saturday, except that we painted the front of
a house of a less active family! Elder C and I are the painting pros of Puerto
Paita. We painted the front of this house bright yellow. That would be kind of
weird in Utah, but it is completely normal here. Everyone plasters the front of
their brick house with cement and then chooses a color to paint it to make sure
that it stands out from the neighbors. I love it here. It reminds me of the
show Dragon Tales where everything is rainbow colored. jajajajajaja, but for
real.

Sunday was a great day. Sunday morning in church we got to sing
church hymns. I love Christmas music. It would be impossible to get in the
Christmas spirit for me if it were not for music. I absolutely love Christmas
music. I love the hymns in Spanish. They are a little bit different. Like
Silent Night is Noche de Luz. (Night of light). But even though they are a
little bit different, they still carry the same message of the birth of
our Savior. I'm so grateful for this Christmas season!

Sunday night we went up to the upper part of Paita to watch the
Christmas Devotional. It was super great. I enjoyed it a lot. Probably more
than I ever have before. Even though this Christmas is going to be different, I
am still looking forward to it. It is important that we remember the true
meaning of Christmas. One of the best parts of the devotional was when all the
little kids were singing with Elder Nelson and the little boy winked at the
little girl sitting next to him. I almost died of laughter! I love Christmas.
Christmas time is the best! It's pretty weird to be sweating to death the month
of Christmas though! Definitely something I'm not used to!

Today for p day we went and took some pictures with our district
at the giant Christmas tree at the beach. Pretty cool. My first Christmas at
the beach. It's pretty cool living here in Paita. Being able to wake up every
morning and sitting up in my bed looking out the window at the ocean. I'm super
blessed. After we took some pictures we went and explored El Mercado. El
Mercado is crazy! People running around, animals, clothes, food, raw fish. You
name it, it's there. There is so much fake stuff. Soccer jerseys are super
cheap. Nike shoes. Shirts. Nike backpacks. Bomba. Not sure how
you spell it, but that's how you say it. There is no such thing as original
Nike here. I love Peru!

Nativity at the beach.

My district here in Puerto Paita

Thanks for all of the love and support! Love you all! I hope you
all have a great Christmas!

Elder Baker

P.S. Thanks for all the notes for the Christmas tree on my
wall. It's super great! I love it!

My Christmas tree in my room

Lauren. I love reading your letters. The Lord has prepared
all kinds of people to hear this message though. A missionary in my mission
baptized an Evangelical pastor! Cool huh?? Well anyways. Love you! Keep up the
great work!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Holy Moly. It's already December. It seems like just yesterday
when I was getting off of the plane in Lima at 1 in the morning. So much has
happened since then. The mission is great. This week was great. Really hard as
for the missionary work, but we had a baptism. And that was amazing. There
isn't anything much cooler than seeing one of your investigators take the first
step and being baptized. It was such a great week.

Tuesday morning we had our district meeting and then right after
that we had a companionship exchange with the zone leaders. I went with Elder P
to the upper part of Paita. Elder P is a super cool missionary. He was in Lopez
Albujar right before I got there. So we ended up talking a ton about that ward
and all the people we know there and talked about how the people he baptized
are doing. It was super fun. Elder P is a super great missionary. He was made
zone leader with just 10 months in the field. He's a super great leader. He understands
his purpose as a missionary and he has a super great attitude about everything.
I feel like I was able to learn a lot from him. We had some pretty great
lessons too. That night we went back to his apartment and it just made me
thankful for the apartment I have. Mainly just because his room has a rat in it
that they have been trying to catch for the past few days. And their shower is
broken. They have to fill up a 5 gallon bucket with water and pour water on
themselves with a cup. Not gonna lie. That was my first time showering like
that here in the mission. It was pretty fun. I'm experiencing new things every
day.

Wednesday my companion had a training for District Leaders in
Piura so I ended up spending almost all of Wednesday with Elder P in his area
too. Not sure why, but Wednesday I got sick. It's pretty normal though. No fun,
but something you just come to expect. It's better to leave and try to work
with a fake smile, than to stay in your apartment. If it is at all possible, I
am going to leave and work. Being stuck in your apartment all day is
soooooooooo boring. And it's not the reason that I'm here on the mission. My
companion got back at about 6 and we headed back to our apartment.

Thursday was pretty hard. It was
hard to work, because everywhere we went no one was home!We had a Thanksgiving party with
President Rowley right after lunch. Well it wasn't really a Thanksgiving party.
It was just a meeting with our zone. We didn't even mention that it was
Thanksgiving. Completely forgot. We had a meeting and discussed how we can work
better as missionaries with the leaders of our wards and branches. It was a
super good meeting. Because this is super important. As President Monson said,
now is the time for members and missionaries to work together. After the
meeting, we went back to our areas and worked. After the meeting we got
the mail that President had brought with him from Piura and I got the package
with the Christmas tree and the cards. Thank you so much. I've only opened 2 of
them and they have made me so happy. It makes our room look a lot happier too.
Ready for Christmas! It was a hard afternoon too. Almost everywhere we went,
people were busy or not home. I love working with Elder C though, because we
just keep on working and don't let it get us down. When times get tough, the
tough get going. Now I know I'm not tough. Far from it. But I still get going.
That's the best thing to do as a missionary.

Saturday was by far the best day of the week. Because Saturday is
the day that Hermana Esmeralda chose to be baptized. She has been having the
missionaries teach her for a couple months and was super ready for her baptism.
I have only been teaching her for 2 weeks, but you can tell how much her
testimony has grown. We went to visit her almost every day this week just for a
few minutes to make sure she was ready and excited and she always just had a
smile on her face. She kept on saying how excited she was. Saturday Elder C and
I went over to the church to clean the baptismal font because it was absolutely
nasty how gross it was. It hadn't been used for months. We wanted everything to
be clean and ready. We wanted to make sure that her baptism was something that
she will be able to remember for the rest of her life. People started showing
up to the church at like 6 and there ended up being a really good turnout.
Especially from the Relief Society which we were super happy about. It's
important that she feels welcome in the church. My companion and Hermana
Esmeralda changed into their white clothes at like 6:30 and we took some
pictures. The actual baptism was super pretty and everything went really well.
As she climbed the steps out of the water she had a huge smile on her face. I
was so happy for her. After they had changed back into their normal clothes,
she had the opportunity to bear her testimony. Halfway through her testimony
the power went out and we were in total blackness. We didn't stop the service
though. We kept going and she kept on bearing her testimony. She kept on
saying. "voy a seguir... voy a seguir... voy a seguir". It was such a
cool experience. The spirit could be felt so strongly at her baptism. We
finished up with a song and everything in the dark. It was super cool.

Today for p day we went and played soccer on the beach with our
whole zone here in Puerto Paita. It was super cool. Then we went and had a much
needed cleaning session in our room. Holy moly was it dirty. It's pretty spotless
now though. I love having a clean room. It feels so nice.

It's good that Lauren isn't here. She would hate all the fish.
Yesterday with our pensionista we had huevera de pescado. It's honestly just
millions of little fish eggs. I gagged when I started to eat it, but after I
got over the thought that I was eating fish eggs, it tasted pretty good!

I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I have no doubt that this
church is true! Thanks for all of the love and support! Love you guys!

Elder Baker

Lauren, Sounds like you're having fun in Australia. Crazy to think
it's almost Christmas no?? Time flies by out here. Thanks for your example! I'm
so grateful to say that I have an awesome sister who is a missionary just like
me! The church is true! NO DOUBT! Tell it! Love you!

Holy moly. We had a zone activity at the beach today. And it was
amazing. It took a while though so I might not have much time to write, but I'm
going to try my best.

At Crab Beach

First off. I absolutely love Paita. haha But for real. This place is beautiful. It's so
nice waking up every morning and looking out the window at the ocean! One thing
I love about being by the ocean is that there is always a nice breeze to cool
you off, and that there are no stupid mosquitos that you have to deal with!

Tuesday was a great day. First thing in the morning we woke up and
went running on the beach. At 6:30 in the morning, the only people that are
there are us and the fishers going out in their boats to fish. Running was so
nice. Even though it made me realize how out of shape I am, it was amazing.
Tuesday morning we had a district meeting in our capilla which is right by the
ocean. The people in my district are super cool. We had a great meeting about
personal revelation through the Book of Mormon. I was honestly so confused with
our area on Tuesday. I'm finally now starting to feel like I know my way
around. There are tons of hills though. I like hills.

Wednesday. Best day of the mission. Maybe not the BEST day, but it
was definitely up there. Wednesday we got to travel to Chiclayo to hear from
Elder Russell M. Nelson. Such an amazing experience. We had to wake up at 4 in
the morning and had to be at the bus station here in Paita at 5:15 with our
whole zone to get on a bus to go to Piura. We got to Piura at about 6:30 and
then hopped in a moto taxi and went to the stake center in Piura Central.
That's where we met up with the entire mission and then got onto buses to go to
Chiclayo. It was super fun seeing everyone from the mission. I saw a lot of
people that I hadn't seen in a while. The bus ride to Chiclayo was 3 and a half
hours. Pretty fun. Except for the 3 and a half hours. Buses are never fun. But
it was definitely worth it. The conference with Elder Nelson was amazing.
During his talk I received many answers to questions that I had. Questions that
I had prayed to receive an answer about. I know that our Heavenly Father
listens to our prayers. Always. And if we pray sincerely, he will answer our
prayers. After the conference we got back on the buses and headed back to
our mission and then to our areas. It was a really long day. I was so
tired by the time we got back to our apartment but it was so worth it.

Me and my companion in Chiclayo

Thursday was a great day. I love working with my companion. He is
such a happy, and hard- working kid. He is 22 years old, and was baptized when
he was 19. He is the only member in his family. But he is the most hard-working
kid I know. And he has such a strong testimony. He is one of the people that loves
everyone. Thursday night we had a lesson with our investigator Esmeralda. She
is 54 years old and her daughter is a member of the church. She has a baptismal
date for this Saturday, the 30th. She is super duper excited for her baptism.
And she is ready for her baptism too. All the time she bears her testimony to
us and tells us how much the gospel has helped her so far in her life.

Friday night we were having a lesson with another one of our
investigators. He is this 74 year old, hilarious guy. Everything he says is
funny. His family is members and he has a baptismal date for the 24th of
December. We were teaching him about fasting and when we told him that in the
church we fast the first Sunday of every month for 2 meals, he says to us
"That's easy. Sometimes I fast for a week." His family burst out in
laughter and soon after he started to laugh and it was one of those moments
where as hard as you are trying not to laugh, you can´t help it. He's a great
guy though. One of those people that is impossible not to love.

Saturday morning I woke up sick. Being sick is no fun. Curled up
on my bed is not the place I wanted to be on Saturday, but there wasn't
much else I could do. We went to our Pension to eat on Saturday, and she fixed
me soup, because that's the only thing that even sounded remotely good. Our
pensionista here is great. Her husband is a fisher. And they love fish. I love
fish too. We eat a lot of fish here. There and so many kinds of fresh fish that
they sell right here in Paita. Anyway, she is great. Her house is super cool.
Built into the side of the mountain overlooking the ocean. Pretty great view
for lunch every day.

Sunday we had sacrament meeting. It was the first time I have ever
attended a branch and not a ward that I can remember. It's pretty much exactly
the same except there were only like 70 people there and it only took like 3
minutes to pass the sacrament. But other than that it's pretty much the same.
It was super good. One thing I love about this branch though is that the ward
mission leader is super active and wants to help us out as much as he can. That
is something that is going to be really nice here.

Today, we had a zone activity. Our whole zone went to a beach that
is like 20 minutes away from here that is called Crab Beach. Literally there
are hundreds of crabs running around. Everywhere! They are all only about 3 or
4 inches wide though. We took a ton of pictures of the ocean and climbed a
bunch of rocks and played some games and played soccer on the beach. It was
honestly super duper fun. Definitely something that wouldn't have even been
possible in Piura. I love being here in Paita. It's such a great experience.

There were hundreds of these crabs running around!

I love being a missionary. I know that Joseph Smith helped to
restore the Gospel in this dispensation. I know that the Book of Mormon is
true. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who loves us and answers our
prayers. And I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that he died for
each and every one of us. And through him, we can be cleansed of all of our
sins and mistakes and be made clean. I know this church is true!